BNZ lifts mortgage rates

The rate change will take effect on June 17

BNZ lifts mortgage rates

Bank of New Zealand will lift the cost of its floating-rate home loans, following similar moves from ANZ and Kiwibank.

Read more: Mortgage rates tipped to rise up to 7.5%

BNZ will increase the interest rate on its Standard, Fly Buys, Rapid Repay, and Mortgage One variable-rate loans from 5.5% to 5.94% on June 17.

In his First View report, Jarrod Kerr, Kiwibank chief economist, said around half of mortgage holders were rolling onto new interest rates nearly twice what they had been paying, adding that “it will hurt,” Stuff reported.

Independent economist Tony Alexander expected retailers to be hit by the rise in homeowners’ mortgage repayments as households had less in their pockets to spend.

ANZ will increase its floating home loan and ANZ Flexible Home Loan interest rates by 40 basis points to 5.94% pa and 6.05% pa, respectively. Kiwibank hiked its one-year fixed-rate home “special” loan rate from 4.55% to 4.85% for borrowers with debts of less than 80% of the value of their homes, Stuff reported.

Read next: ANZ announces mortgage rate rises